6/08/2010

A couple of notes on multiple victim public shootings in France

Shootings in France reveal explosive social tensionsBy Therese LeClerc3 April 2002 . . . Over the last 10 years there have been at least 17 such incidents, often ending with the suicide of the perpetrator. In July 1992, a young worker killed seven people in the factory in Besancon from which he had been recently fired. He then killed himself. Twelve months later, a member of the gypsy community killed six of his relatives before committing suicide. In September 1995, a 16-year-old killed sixteen people, including three family members, and wounded seven others before killing himself. And last October a railway worker opened fire in the central French city of Tours, killing four people and wounding eleven others. He is currently in prison. . . .

PARIS, Oct. 29— A masked railroad worker went on a shooting rampage in central France today, killing four people and wounding 10, including three police officers.

The only explanation offered by the authorities for the shootings in Tours was speculation by local officials that the gunman, Jean-Pierre Roux-Durrafourt, was angry at his employer, Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer, the national railroad. He was captured by the police in an underground parking garage. . . .